Tag Archives: food

stuffed chicken and bacon dippers.


With that title I sound like some fancy chef/cook/baker with a blog.

I invented this recipe (and title) too. Oh, I am sure someone, somewhere made this before, but give me some credit for thinking of (aka inventing) it.

The ingredients are the type of food you buy when you only get home at 6pm and did not have lunch yet – so you want everything to be ready in 10 minutes. No, make that 8.

There is no recipe, so I will just tell you (in short) what I did – although it is pretty obvious.


(left) Sliced and toasted the bread. Chopped up the onion and mushrooms. Salt. Pepper. Olive oil. Into the oven.

(right) Chicken breast (free range please). Cut the chicken breasts in half so that it is extra thin. Do not cut it all the way through – one side has to be closed. Cover with stuffing.


Looks a little ew when raw. Half way through, add garlic and ginger. A few minutes after that, cover it with sweet chilli sauce. You want the sweet with the bacon.

By the way, bacon and maple syrup love each other.


I like it dark and crispy. The dark one in the back tasted sooo good.

Say it with me ‘sweet, sticky, crispy bacon tastes oh-so-good’.


Butternut. Yum. You can use sweet potato / yams too. I love butternut.

White marshmallows. Ooh yeah. Cover the butternut with the lovely little white blobs and put it into the oven (under the grill) for a few minutes. ‘Til it is puffy, fluffy, golden and toasted.

I ate it all by myself, because I was scared that someone would fall in love with me if they tasted all the goodness. Cannot let that happen. No, no, no.

To top it all. It was served with cranberry jelly.

Yes, I know you love me.

P.S. If you burn the marshmallows the first time, you get to do it again. That is a tip. Remember it.

thankfoo.


Today I am thankful for food – and this.

Oh and Joy The Baker who gives me crazy ideas. I like baking with Joy – as you all know by now. She makes me think out of the box (or maybe the cookie jar will be more appropriate).

I am not a big fan of birthdays or Christmas. Holidays tend to be a money making scheme and that is sooo not my thing. Food is sooo much better than presents.

No, I am not American – that I know for sure. Nor do I celebrate the day the Pilgrims shot (and ate) the first turkey – as in the first one ever. (Thank you.)

For me Thanksgiving is just (another) day to think of everything that you are thankful for. You will actually live a much happier life when you think of these things on a daily basis, but Thanksgiving is the big one. The day when you should actually make a list. I guess that is why a turkey takes sooo long to cook. It gives you enough time to finish that list. If you do not have a list, then I would suggest taking more time to figure out why.

Then of course – the food. Ah, the glorious food. These photos are some of the ingredients that I will be using for dinner tonight.




On the menu.

Stuffed chicken and bacon dippers. Not sure what this is, but I thought of it earlier today while buying the ingredients. In my mind it sounds, looks and tastes really good. Now I can only hope for the best.

Cranberry sauce and apple sauce. You cannot have chicken (or turkey – but this year turkey will take too long) without apple sauce. Cranberry sauce is like a holiday on it’s own. It is that good.

Sweet potato / butternut with marshmallows. Earlier today someone referred to it as the way American ‘white trash’ eat their yams. Call me what you want, but tonight, the marshmallows and pumpkin will be having a sweet affair.

Biscuits. Nogal with goats cheese. Here is the recipe if you want to know how.

How is that list coming along?

Photo credit: Joy The Baker
 

neighbor dining.

One of my new favorite things. Really, fa-vohhh-ritt!

“Today, more and more people live alone and according to a late study, loneliness is a bigger health threat than alcoholism, obesity and smoking. What if we could fight it with something so simple like eating, and at the same time, save energy?”

My house or yours?

growing up.

Today I realized that I am turning into a real grownup lately. A healthy grownup too. What made me realize this very important fact? My groceries.

Usually I buy kiddies food. The chicken nuggets with the dinosaurs on the pack. The toaster oven waffles – you know the ones you pop into the toaster and 1 minute later you have dinner. The chocolates or colorful candy – not even to mention the Spider-man cupcakes.

It might be safe to say that I am not a big fan of normal food. I never cook, which is why I called toaster oven waffles – dinner. Did you notice that? Oi.

The last few months dinner usually only happens around 9pm. Woah, that is late. Yes, yes, I know, Oprah said you should not eat after 7pm. Too bad. I was running like a mad person earlier tonight. Exercise.

Wow, real food AND exercise? Yup.

Guess what? I have been eating veggies too. Not just one, but every meal I try to eat 2 different types of veggies. Yum.

In a weird way I am starting to enjoy food again, because for a long time I did not like food or eating very much. If that is even possible. Believe me, it was true.

Sometimes I make extra food during the evenings so that I have a cooked meal for lunch the next day. Otherwise I will opt for the usual piece of toast. As most of you will know by now.

I am lactose intolerant, but can eat little bits at a time. Flavored yoghurt seems to be okay most of the time, especially when it is Black Forest. Yes, I will admit – probably not the best form of calcium, but it is one of the only ones I get.

A healthy, fit Narry is a happy Narry. Even when she tries to be all grown up.

These are the last 3 movies I bought. Who is the grownup now?

Have you seen Fantastic Mr Fox? No? Please do yourself a favor and watch it. It is one of my all time favorites, you will laugh (and laugh). Thank you Wes Anderson, we love you.

Do you know what makes it even better? It is a stop-motion animated film.

Now make a plan to watch it. It is one of those things that grownups do. Really.

the salad shop.


Chairs. Bright, colorful and very interesting-looking chairs. Caught my eye. Noticed the rest of The Salad Shop only after ooh-ing and aah-ing over the chairs.



The Salad Shop is a fast-food restaurant in Singapore. Salads? Fast food? Yup.

You have to love their slogan too – “for herbivores, carnivores, and everything else in-between”.

butternut squash & pomegranate galette.


Anything ‘bread’ and anything crispy makes me go oooh, so thank you Karen and Design*Sponge.

Oooh!

Savory Pie Dough
3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
20 twist of a pepper mill
2 sticks cold butter cut in cubes
1/4 cup ice-cold water
½ butternut squash – halved and deseeded, and sliced
½ red onion sliced with root end still intact
3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp chopped sage
Handful of pomegranate seeds
4 tbsp chopped toasted walnuts
Salt
Fresh pepper
Good quality extra virgin olive oil

Measure out flour, salt and pepper into a food processor. Mix well. Add the butter and pulse till butter resembles small pea size pieces. Add water while pulsing processor. Stop once the dough becomes a ball. Lay out a piece of clear wrap, lay the dough on it, flatten to a thick disk (or two) while wrapping. Allow to rest for at least ½ hour. (Dough Recipe by Camille Becerra)

Preheat oven to 400 ºF / 200 ºC.

Slice the squash and cut the onion into equal width wedges – about ½ inch thick. Mix with butter, sage, salt and pepper and toss.

Roll out dough on lightly floured surface into 12 inch round and transfer to baking sheet. With each wedge beginning at center of the dough, fan squash and onions into pinwheel shape, overlapping and covering entire center of the round—leaving a few inch border. If you are making a large galette, you can form an outer row of veggies. Gently fold remaining dough over the edge of the filling, forming a freeform tart crust. Beat egg with a splash of water and brush over the crust. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until crust is golden brown and squash pierces easily with a fork.

While tart cools, sprinkle toasted walnuts and pomegranate seeds over top.

When ready to serve drizzle generously with very good extra virgin olive oil. Crack fresh black pepper and sprinkle coarse sea salt.

Makes two 12 inch galettes or one large

portland.


Photo by vintageroadside.

Narry needs the States. Yes, there are many other countries to explore. I will get to those soon enough, but this year I need a lil bit of Amurrr-kah (America, and no I do not know anyone – including myself – who pronounces it like that).

For a while now I have had a Portland State of Mind.

Portland is the “the city of roses” and a while ago I heard all about Powell’s City of Books, the biggest bookstore – like ever. Biggest? Yes, it fills an entire city block.

There are rivers and bridges, bicycles and streetcars, restaurants with names like Olé Olé and Cha! Cha! Cha! – oh, and in case you did not know, Portland is the home of The Waffle Window.

Photo by suomynona

Yes, it is all about food and cherry blossoms. Portland has cherry blossoms too. I know, right? Can it get any better? Yes it actually can, because Seattle is close enough. Three hours ‘close enough’.

up in the air somewhere.


I am a cereal mixer. Yes, you will always spot 2 types of cereal in my bowl of milk (2% please).

My favorite mix at the moment is a berry mix: Kellogg’s Special K (red berries) and All Bran Flakes. But lately I decided to cut down on all the crazy cereal buying and stick to the “healthy” option. Plain ol’ Bran Flake something. It’s dull and I miss my red berries, but in the mean time I think Susan Dwyer’s ceramics and paper-mâché collection, Up in the Air Somewhere, might help to brighten my mornings sans the typical cereal mix.

fried egg with chorizo and sage pesto.


Sandwich time! Recipe time! This might be the first recipe on Narrylikes, but this looks too good not to share. Grub Street recently had an article about the 101 Best Sandwiches in New York. No, this one did not make the list, because it is not a “New York Sandwich” – you can make this one at home. Like, right now. Like for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It is that good.

Recipe via Design*Sponge and Charlotte Tolhurst.

Fried egg with chorizo and sage pesto sandwich
Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 4 mins
Serves: 1

Ingredients for the sandwich:
1 ciabatta roll
1 egg
5 hand cut slices chorizo (about 5mm or a little less than 1/4 inch thick)
A hand full of rocket
A little olive oil

For the pesto:
50g (2 ounces) sage leaves
50g (2 ounces) walnuts
150 ml (2/3 cup + 2 tablespoons) extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic
50g (2 ounces) Parmesan
5 grams (1 tsp) salt

Method:
To make the pesto using the traditional method take a pestle and mortar and crush all the ingredient with the mortar gradually incorporating the extra virgin olive oil, if you don’t have time for this throw everything in to a mini blender and pulse until a rough texture is achieved. You will have enough to fill a small jar and you can keep this in the fridge for up to 3-4 weeks or alternatively fill an ice cube tray and freeze, then you can pop a cube into pasta sauces or enrich soups etc…

To make your sandwich, fry the chorizo in a hot pan with a little oil, not too much as the chorizo will produce its own oil.

When the chorizo is starting to crisp up move to the side of the frying pan and fry your egg until the white is cooked through and the yolk is still runny.

Slice open a ciabatta roll and fill with the chorizo then the rocket and top with the egg, finishing with a drizzle of pesto.

the geometry of pasta.


This is probably a sign of my love for infographics. I know, not quite the same, but give me a piece of paper with lots of tiny images / drawings / doodles / scribbles on it and I will not say a word – for a while.

Absolutely love the simplicity of this book, and who would have thought that you could have a book of pasta, the geometry of pasta. Interesting.

And look, the cover folds out – more pasta geometry goodness.